Hi Jeff, I've got one just like yours. It can really make you wonder, can't it?! My guess is that there is a very slight amount of "grab" to the strings. (mini- rust?) As the strings pass over the felt, there is too much friction to get the tuning to settle properly. I now use protek with just about every tuning on the felt. Like yours, I'm just there as a contract tech to tune, so any extras are "on me". Focus on the things that you can do quickly, to make your life easier... You mentioned false beats, if you've got a steady hand, and are willing to try, some good superglue carefully wicked in the bridge pins of the offending section should help a lot. Again, if they won't pay for anything big, do the 'quick and easy' things that will help you do your job. As to the tuning, go to your "bag of tricks" and see what works. Sometimes very firm blows help, but sometimes they make it worse. On some sections I have to approach the pitch from below, any releasing the pitch from above leaves the tuning unstable. I tried an impact lever, but that didn't help either. As luck would have it, I'll be wrestling this beast later today..... Ron Koval Chicagoland <snip> Our main performance piano is a 1974 Steinway D, which to my knowledge has never been restrung. It has gotten increasingly hard to tune over the last few years - a lot of false beats and very hard to get clean unisons, much less get them stable. <snip> _________________________________________________________________ Get reliable access on MSN 9 Dial-up. 3 months for the price of 1! (Limited-time offer) http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup&pgmarket=en-us&ST=1/go/onm00200361ave/direct/01/
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